EXPOSURE: Our journey to Jacks
How do you like to spend your Mondays? We doubt you’ve ever found yourself in a room with 10 other strangers, wearing bright orange balaclavas complete with pompoms on top — and if you have then you were probably a part of the inaugural Jack Morton EXPOSED grad challenge. Or you have odd hobbies.
Hi, Sam and Cathy here! We survived and won the EXPOSED graduate positions and have been loving our first month here in the Sydney Jack Morton office. Why did we end up spending a night in balaclavas? We got to the same place, but our paths were quite different.
Cathy’s journey
While on holiday a sneaky targeted Facebook ad popped up on my feed. I was approaching the end of my Bachelor of Commerce/Media degree at UNSW with no concrete plans for 2019. My friends and I had decided to embark on a month-long USA trip to celebrate our directionless future and as a last hurrah to our university life. Little did I know, new direction would emerge whilst on this trip.
The image of the skull captured my attention mid scroll. Stumbling upon a graduate program on Facebook seemed too good to be true. Upon further investigation, the recruitment process of the program appealed to me. After months of writing cover letters, reworking my resume, video interviews and assessment centres, simply being judged on the quality of my idea was refreshing and challenging.
The ethos and work that Jack Morton does in Australia and around the world really appealed to me. The promise of daily challenges, working in a creative environment and the lure of global opportunities was everything I wanted as a graduate. Having spent time working in the digital space, Jack Morton’s proposition of being a brand experience agency was a new pathway to build on my skillset.
This all occurred to me while in transit from New Orleans to Las Vegas, two days before submissions closed. Armed with nothing more than a notebook, a pen and an iPad, I set out to meet the 48-hour deadline while cramming in a packed sightseeing schedule.
I will never forget those two crazy days. From ideating on the plane, filming my submission in a hotel room to downloading as many free video editing apps onto my iPad and submitting my idea over dodgy hotel WiFi, I was excited by the possibilities of the program. The added condition of us remaining anonymous in our submission had me hastily sketch out my idea in a lined notebook. My friends had a good laugh at me holding my phone in one hand as I sketched with the other on a hotel bed. I’m sure you can hear them giggling in the background when I shut myself in the hotel closet to record my speaking parts.
To my surprise I received an email at the tail end of my trip with an invitation to the EXPOSED live battle. This group interview promised to maintain our anonymity, but how? Was there going to be a two-way glass situation? Were we going to be given paper bags to put over our heads a la Shia LaBeouf? Luckily or unluckily, the Face Off was scheduled to happen the night I returned from my trip. So… fresh off a 14-hour flight, feeling the pull of jet lag, I covered my game face with an orange balaclava and was ushered into a room full of strangers.
Sam’s journey
Circling back to early July in 2018; I was most of the way through a double degree in Creative Arts and Commerce at the University of Wollongong. Nearing the end of my studies, the prospect of organising my post-university life was increasingly daunting.
I discovered the Jack Morton EXPOSED graduate program through an email that was sent to my university account. The email had been sent out to a list of recent or soon-to-be marketing graduates. This did not look like your run-of-the-mill job application. It was positioned as a creative challenge where the winners would be offered a 12-month paid role on the creative team in the Sydney office.
The task was straightforward:
· Respond to the brief in a 30 second video and stay anonymous
Simple and intriguing, they didn’t care who we were or what we looked like — it was all about the idea. This was refreshing at a time in my life where so much pressure was placed on how I presented on paper. It made me think that Jack Morton would be the kind of workplace I’d want to be a part of. Doing some deeper research into Jacks and their work, I fell in love with experiential marketing as a concept. Particularly the integration of digital and tangible to create even more meaningful experiences.
Having figured out a response, it was time for a disguise. Dressed as an alarming combination of gangster and Zorro — hoping that none of my room mates came home — I filmed, edited and submitted my idea. Now it was time to wait.
An invitation arrived to the EXPOSED live ideas battle — half ideation session, half party. I had made it through to the next round and I was excited. I loved the gamification of the job process. I knew, based on the original email, that we would remain unidentified until the very end but I wondered how they would continue anonymity in reality.
On the journey to Sydney, I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. It felt like it would be different to any interview I’d ever experienced, or would likely experience again. I was right. On arrival — like the other applicants — I was greeted and given an orange balaclava to wear for the interview. The balaclava would have affected everyone differently. Personally, I was energised by the ridiculousness of the situation and found a strange confidence in being faceless and I guess that shone through.
On our first day, we were amazed to hear about each other’s journey to Jack Morton. And since that day, we’ve been immersed in the work and office culture - from attending client meetings, helping out on pitches and contributing to creative brainstorms, our year ahead will surely be action packed. As the first EXPOSED graduates, we’ll be blogging about our year every month. You’ll be hearing from both of us about what we’ve learned and the exciting projects we’ll be working on.
